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Sunday, 15 April 2012

A Day Of Two Environments

Have enjoyed a good day today, this morning i went down to the beach, as i wanted to collect a few things that are only found down there, while we were there, we had a bit of a walk round and a climb on the rocks that were imported from Norway for use as breakwaters, why we had to import rock from Norway is beyond me, as we have plenty of perfectly good Granite quarries in the UK.

I suspect it's probably down to cost, still the rocks do make a good feature in the area and nature is slowly starting to colonise them, the seaweed is taking hold and hopefully at some time in the not too distant future, Limpets may may make an appearance, i do hope so as they are very tasty.

We also had a look round at some of the foreshore plants that are in the area, things like Sea Kale, Valerian & Silver Ragwort to name but three, all protected by law, and rightly so.

After lunch i was at a loose end, so i went for a walk over the fields and up the lane for a hour or so, lots of wild foods are in evidence, Alexanders, Burdock, Nettles, Silverweed, some very tasty Blackthorn blossom and nice young Hawthorn leaves.

A lot of the early spring flowers and blooms are now receding, but there are still a few Violets & Celandine's to be seen, the Beech leaves are just starting to break out, so it wont be long before i can go and collect some to make a spring time tipple called Noyau, it's a bit like Marmite, you either love it, or hate it, there is no in between with it.

Further up the lane where the Elms have been felled as part of the disease control, there is an incredible amount of new growth, all of the pollarded Elms are budding like mad and in some places the hedge is already looking nice and thick again, on top of this, the is farmer has undertaken an incredible amount of tree planting, mainly with whips, but there has been a lot of planting going on, and of course, where the Elms have been taken down, sunlight is reaching parts where it has not been for years and all manner of seeds are now germinating after years of laying dormant, it's going to be interesting watching the area regenerate and keeping an eye out for previously undiscovered plant species.